Monthly Archive for January, 2011

: January, 2011

eBay has hired Scott Prevost, a principal development manager for Bing, away from Microsoft to bolster its search and “machine learning” initiatives, All Things Digital reported today. Prevost will start immediately as eBay’s vice president of product management on search, an eBay spokesperson confirmed for seattlepi.com. eBay also hired a search expert away from Facebook as part of its search push. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. …

Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, got off to “a slow start” during the fourth quarter, research firm NPD Group said today, debuting with a 2 percent share of new phones sold in the U.S. …

A helicopter from Seattle billionaire Paul Allen’s yacht made an emergency landing today in a bay off the Argentine city of Ushuaia, at the tip of Tierra del Fuego, Reuters reports. The news service reported the Microsoft co-founder was not aboard the helicopter, but said the co-pilot was injured and taken to a hospital. Reuters reported the yacht, the 414-foot Octopus, was planning a trip to Antarctica. …

Google’s Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, surpassing Nokia’s Symbian in the fourth quarter of 2010 as Microsoft’s market share plummeted, according to analysis firm Canalys. …

The Associated Press reports: “Bill Gates says he feels a responsibility to speak up for the world’s poorest because they’re likely to be hit hard as economic woes force governments to reduce contributions to foreign aid. In his third annual letter, issued Monday, the co-chairman of the world’s largest charitable foundation expressed concern about budget cuts to the programs that transfer dollars from rich nations to poor ones, providing medical assistance, food aid, vaccines and other help.” Read … …

I haven’t been able to find anything to suggest Bill Gates actually played Kinect at a Microsoft gala Thursday in Davos, Switzerland. But he was certainly working the room during an event about the “natural user interface” at this week’s World Economic Forum. …

Lee Nackman, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Directory, Access and Information Protection, is slated to take over the company’s cloud-based productivity services when that group’s current leader, Dave Thompson, leaves later this year, ZDNet reports. As seattlepi.com first reported Wednesday, CVP Thompson plans to retire after Microsoft’s releases Office 365, which is expected to happen in June. Nackman joined Microsoft in 2009 after 26 years at IBM. …